I instantly fell in love with both books, so I was thrilled when they offered to sponsor a giveaway here. This giveaway is for a copy of both books, signed by the author: the wonderful Ashley English. If you are interested in wholesome, real foods and are looking to become more self-sufficient in terms of the foods you consume, I promise you will just love these books, too.

Keeping Chickens has been extremely useful to me in my first year raising chickens. Ashley English is “spot on” with the perfect mix of information and inspiration. The book covers all stages of raising chickens: from housing to choosing breeds to obtaining the chickens and dealing with their health and wellness. The photos are beautiful and at the back there is a small section with egg recipes: these include classics as well as interesting variations on stand-by dishes with eggs. Even if you don’t ever plan to keep chickens, this book is great for anyone who wants to know more about what it takes to maintain a healthy flock- kids would love it, too.

I would describe myself as a novice canner. I am not yet knowledgeable enough about the process to safely develop my own canning recipes, so I am pleased to have addedCanning and Preserving to my library. This book celebrates the canning movement through photos, stories, and step-by-step tutorials. Author Ashley English is again engaging yet incredibly thorough, and the seasonally organized recipes are lovely (I have adapted one of them below). If you have yet to dive into canning, you definitely want to have this book for reference when you begin; if you are already a seasoned canner, I think this will quickly become one of your new favorite resources.

The recipe below is adapted from Canning and Preserving. It would never have occurred to me to make a chutney out of winter squash before I read this book, but I am so glad that I did. It is sweet, ginger-y and delicious.

You can use butternut squash, red kuri squash, kabocha squash, acorn squash, sweet dumpling squash, or even sugar pie pumpkin in this recipe. I used a combination of acorn and sweet dumpling squashes.

You can vary the spice level to your liking, but if you are canning this recipe, make sure to use the full amount of vinegar and sugar. If you plan to refrigerate the recipe without canning it, you can cut down a bit on these, if you like.

Directions:

1. Make a spice bag by placing the spices from cardamom through the cinnamon sticks in a muslin tea bag or a square piece of cheesecloth secured tightly with a rubber band.

2. Place the spice bag, the squash and the rest of the ingredients in a suitable pot on the stove. Bring to a boil, then reduce the heat to a simmer. Cook for 45-50 minutes, until squash is very tender, adding a little water every now and then (if needed) to prevent the chutney from sticking to the pan. Discard the spice bag.

3. Ladle into hot, sterilized jars leaving 1/2″ headspace. Wipe the jar rims clean. Cover with lid and ring, and tighten until fingertip-tight. Process in boiling water for 15 minutes.

Lark is publishing two more books in the series: Keeping Bees and Home Dairy. These are coming out in March, and I am really looking forward to reading them!

To enter the giveaway for the signed copy of Keeping Chickens and Canning & Preserving, all you have to do is leave me a comment below.

For a third entry, please follow Lark Crafts and me on twitter, then leave me a comment letting me know that you did/do.

That’s it!

I’d love to hear from all readers, of course, but the giveaway is only open to US residents. Thanks and good luck…the giveaway is open through Sunday, January 30th at midnight EST and I’ll use random.org to choose a winner on Monday morning.

These books look amazing! I love the graphics & the upcoming titles look equally interesting.
I would love the canning one & although I don’t have chickens…my mother {who lives on my street} does!
This post is beautiful Winnie! I love your snow pics :) Had enough yet? Not me…I’m still loving it.
I will enter this one as many times as I can!

I have to look for both of these books…I hope to be chicken keeper one day, and I’m getting more interested in canning all the time.
I love the photos of the chutney in the snow. What a great backdrop.

What a great giveaway! Ryan and I are looking into buying chickens this Spring, and we would find that book so useful! Your chutney looks and sounds delicious too. Thank you so much for sharing with me tonight…and thanks for your sweetness on my blog…it means so much to me!

Oh, I can’t even begin to tell you how applicable this would be to the RGB!!! I grew up with four chickens and have convinced my lovely husband to clear out the corner of our yard so we could add some. So, if we were to get our hands on a copy of this book… well… that’s be awesome. The canning book would be awesome for next spring, too… so we could preserve some of our garden strawberries.

I started reading your blog a few weeks ago and find myself looking forward to every new posting! I’ve already made your Chicken, Rutabaga, & Greens Soup twice since you posted it and it was a big hit with friends!!…a perfect antidote to a cold, snowy Missouri winter!

I’ve tried my hand at canning a couple of times. My apple butter was a big success. But, I don’t have that much experience or any special canning tools, so I’m always a little nervous that the food will spoil – I’d love to have an easy reference book to consult! Thanks for another great giveaway!

ooh..just started following your blog and a giveaway already! Love the recipe for the chutney so will definitely add it to my winter canning list (which seems to be growing at an alarming rate!). Thanks for the information about Lark Crafts. I “liked” Healthy Green Kitchen and Lark Crafts on FB and am looking forward to following along with both.

This is really interesting! I live in a condo, so I don’t think that I will be allowed to raise chickens, but I’m interested in canning! The only time I’ve canned something was when I made applesauce at my parent’s house and I didn’t screw the lids on tightly enough, so when I immersed them in the water, they came off! haha. I have skills.

Some people in my city want to keep chickens and some were keeping them illegally. When one person went public, a neighbour complained. She was forced to get rid of the hens. (Notice that there was no complaint until a neighbour learned about it.) A group petitioned the city to study the issue and recommend whether chickens could be incorporated into an urban environment, as they are in other, and even larger, cities.

City council declined as they have more important matters to consider. I ask: more important than safe and convenient, not to mention less expensive (in this difficult economy), food?

Wow! These books look terrific…a modern approach on timeless arts. If I don’t win, I’ll buy them for sure. But it would be so nice to win! ;-) Also very excited about the upcoming beekeeping book (I already know more than I ever dreamed I’d need to know about dairy!). Hadn’t heard of @larkcrafts before but started following them on twitter after reading this post. Sounds like a GREAT resource for all the things I love!

This chutney, I feel, wouldn’t last long in our refrigerator. We have a kabocha squash half leftover with no set purpose … until now! I love that it’s spiced with those warm, exotic Indian-type flavors. I can imagine having that on warm naan with some yogurt-braised lamb or chicken. A definite winner!

Loving your photos of the jars! We haven’t seen snow in years and my daughter says she’s really love a day to play!
I’m also a novice canner, I’ve only tried a couple of times. I’m inspired to try again this summer!

I’m 15 minutes too late to be entered to win these awesome looking books but I wanted to comment anyway. My uncle just recently started raising his own chicken and I really want to show him this post now so that he can check out this recourse. I also have recently been interested in learning how to can things so these both look like winners. Not to mention, I am a fan of interesting graphic design and the covers both nabbed my attention immediatly!
Congrats to the winner!

Just checking in to let you know we checked this book out from the local libary. We read through every page of it. Then we went down to the local feed store to order 8 chicks – we pick them up next Friday. They’ll live in a brooder in our house until they’re ready to go outside. Mr. RGBistro is building them a custom coop. :-)

Look forward to hearing more of your chicken stories, and perhaps trading notes!

I love this recipe. I plan on making a ton of this to give to family and friends. I have always wondered if you could can squash and this recipe fills the ticket to the tee! Thank you for sharing with me.

I am going to try and find the book you are talking about also. When I was a child my father raised chickens and I have always wanted to do that for my family.

Again, thank you so much for the recipe. I am excited to try this out!

Welcome!

Hi there! I'm Winnie. I am a published author and I create and photograph seasonally inspired recipes here at Healthy Green Kitchen. I am also a body positive, habit-focused nutrition and strength coach, as well as a competitive powerlifter. I live in NY's Hudson Valley with my husband, kids, cats, dogs, and chickens.